


Barrowlands

by rain_sleet_snow



Category: Primeval, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Crossover, Eldritch Creatures - Freeform, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 14:38:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17727098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_sleet_snow/pseuds/rain_sleet_snow
Summary: Liz and Juliet meet a barrow-wight, and the barrow-wight gets more than it bargained for.





	Barrowlands

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fredbassett](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fredbassett/gifts).
  * Inspired by [An East Wind](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/455702) by fredbassett. 



> This fic is the absolute definition of inside baseball, but since the giftee understands it I'm not going to worry my head about that. ;) Inspired by one of fredbassett's own fics where Liz acquires a blade from a Nazgul, not knowing what it is, as a consequence of decent manners and kindness to animals.

"This place gives me the creeps," Juliet said, zipping up her quilted jacket a little more tightly and pulling her beret further down over her head.

 

Liz glanced sideways at her girlfriend, whose face was dimly visible in the light thrown off by her torch, despite the focussed beam being firmly fixed on the ground. It was not a very happy face. Juliet was pretty much a city girl, whose main acquaintance with the rolling hills and flat plain of the West Country came from weekends spent with Liz's father, aunt and uncles in the area. She was as outdoorsy as anyone, and she liked the country just fine, but mostly by daylight or with a map. Here, the only map they had was in Liz's head, and the winter evening had come rolling in early, bringing a lowering half-darkness and a chilly mist to the air.

 

"It's not much further," Liz promised, after considering and discarding several more bracing options. Her aunt Alison and uncle Theo had asked the girls to take Spot to a friend who was going to watch the dog while the two of them were away; it was a twenty-minute walk to the next village by the road, and a fifteen-minute walk if you went cross-country, without the risk of being flattened by a careless driver in the darkness. Juliet had been very happy to walk over the fields on the way to Auntie Alison's friend, who had invited them in, made a fuss over Spot (who knew he was in for at least a week of being spoiled rotten and was consequently excitable) and given them tea and homemade mince pies. She had been equally happy, when they'd started out in the dimming light, to walk back over the fields. She had almost laughed off Jean's offer of a torch.

 

"How much further?" Juliet pressed. Her small, elfin face looked tight with a suspense Liz considered unnecessary, and her hand was grasping Liz's very tightly.

 

"Ten minutes," Liz guessed, imbuing her voice with confidence.

 

Juliet narrowed her eyes at Liz. "This feels odd. I wish we had Spot with us."

 

Liz was compelled to point out that she knew the way home as well as the dog did, and was probably better protection against anything nefarious than a cheerfully stupid Labrador.

 

Juliet kicked her, which was uncharacteristic.

 

"Ow! Ju, are you scared?"

 

"I am. This feels funny. Don’t you get it? A weird sort of chill."

 

Liz, who was about as sensitive to atmospheres as the average kitchen table, privately conceded that it was a bit creepy, but reminded Juliet that December was usually cold and mist wasn’t unexpected.

 

Juliet stamped her feet as she walked, following Liz along the muddy path through the bottom of the valley. It rose gently upwards, to a point where Liz knew they'd find a car park and turn off for the village. "That's not what I mean. Augh, you idiot. I don't think we should have come this way."

 

"It was your idea too," Liz said, mildly nettled. "And I'd rather see a ghost than get hit by a car."

 

"Are you expecting ghosts?" Juliet demanded. Liz didn't think she meant it, but she was obviously on edge.

 

"No," Liz said, with emphasis. She stopped and looked around. All the landmarks she knew were where she expected them to be, although she admitted that the gauzy mist and the last dying dark-blue light, glimpsed as it was through the skeletal branches of a few hardy little trees along the hill-line, were off-putting. "I know exactly where we are. We just need to walk along this valley for another five minutes, and then we take a right, go through the National Trust car park and we're practically back in the village."

 

"Good," Juliet said, with equal emphasis. She was standing very close to Liz's back.

 

Liz turned around, and kissed her quickly on the cheek. "It'll be fine. We're almost there. And if anything does pop out, I'll..."

 

"You'll what? Stab it with your Swiss Army knife?"

 

"Um, not exactly," Liz said, drawing a decent veil over the actual contents of her pockets. In her defence, there was no way she could explain to Juliet that a weird man with some kind of creepy powers and an injured flying Thing to take care of had given her a strange knife that seemed to drink up light and which never seemed to need sharpening. She had put it away and forgotten about it over the course of the year. It was definitely in contravention of several important laws, and - though she was unlikely to be stopped and searched, as a white, middle-class teenaged girl - Liz had zero interest in either being arrested or carrying a knife for self-defence. There was no need to escalate a situation she could probably address much more handily with her fists and a well-placed boot.

 

Unfortunately, Liz had put this specific knife away in the coat she had been wearing at the time and forgotten about it, and hadn't realised the knife was still in the inside pocket of her winter outdoor coat until she'd put it on at her aunt and uncle's. Liz thought only Lyle had seen her freeze, and there was no quick and easy way to hand the knife off to him without someone who couldn't be given a proper explanation seeing it.

 

"My knight in shining armour," Juliet said crossly. "Can we move?"

 

Liz moved.

 

The last of the light had gone: now only Jean's torch and Liz's strong sense of the path carried them forward. Juliet's breathing was a little too rapid and nervous, and Liz knew that whatever sense was upsetting Juliet hadn't let up. But it was Liz who came to a halt, only a few minutes later, and said "Hey!"

 

"What?" Juliet said.

 

"There are no standing stones here." Liz flashed her torch at the offending stones, leaning one against the other, which had lurched up out of the mist. "Barrows, yes. No stones."

 

Juliet was silent for a moment. "Maybe we walked out of our way."

 

"There are no standing stones closer than Avebury. We definitely haven't walked that far out of our way." Liz cast about with her torch, but saw nothing but shadows and mud. "This has to be some stupid practical joke. Or an abandoned bit of film set."

 

"We would have noticed them when we came this way before," Juliet said, pressing close against Liz. "I don't like it. Do you have a knife? Give me the torch."

 

Liz looked into Juliet's face, puzzled by her skittishness, and recognised something strange in it, a sharpness to the bone structure she wasn't accustomed to see, a peculiar light in the eyes, which somehow looked far more grey than blue in the odd light of the torch. "We can turn back. Jon will come and pick up up from Jean's, or Dad would."

 

"If you thought that would work you'd call them now," Juliet said. "There's no signal in the valley."

 

There was a horrible certainty in her voice, and yet it was no longer frightened but full of steel. Liz, reluctantly impressed, handed over the torch, and pulled her phone from her pocket. Juliet was perfectly right, both about Liz's choices and the signal.

 

Liz put her phone away. "We can still walk back and call from Jean's, on her landline."

 

"I think it's -" Juliet began, and her _too late_ was echoed by the deep, cold cry of some creature from beyond the standing stones, pale-eyed and too tall, rushing forth like a shadow.

 

Both girls screamed, and Liz dropped her phone and ripped the knife from her pocket. But instead of holding back and letting Liz get on with it, Juliet whirled ahead of her like the dancer she was, using Liz's grip on her hand to push her back out of the way, her long fair hair flickering like an owl's wing in the darkness.

 

"No," Juliet said, and her voice trembled faintly but as she carried on it grew more confident, equally cold but far clearer. "No. We are not yours. You will let us pass."

 

 _Little dancer_ , crooned the voice, _I did not know there were such as you left in these hills._ It sounded far too pleased with itself. _Little dancer, you are not enough._

 

"Piss off," Juliet recommended, and there was a weight and rage to her voice Liz had not heard before. It seemed to promise a power Liz didn't think Juliet had. "Leave us alone."

 

_Little dancer, you are no Lúthien, to cast spells in your feet. Not yet. And you will not be._

 

The dark figure bent over Juliet, far too tall and far too gleeful, and Liz found her voice and surged forward to Juliet's side, knife in hand.

 

"Hey," she said. "Can't you take a fucking hint?"

 

The figure started to laugh. _Two of you. Two for -_

 

"I don't fucking think so," Liz said, and held the knife like Lyle had once shown her, when her father was not looking.

 

She thought it was the knife that did it. The creature saw it, and quailed, and shrank to half its size. Liz took a menacing step forward, and was surprised when it all but bowed before her.

 

_No. No, please, no. My lor- my lady. I knew not. Please, forgive your humble servant._

 

"Leave," Juliet said, soft and angry. "Leave and never come back."

 

 _No_ -

 

"Do what she says," Liz said. "Just do it. Don't make me come over there."

 

There was a horrible scream, and then the creature was gone, and so was the mist - and so were the standing stones.

 

There was a brief silence.

 

"Are we drunk?" Juliet said finally. "What was in those mince pies?"

 

"Nothing. I think." Liz slipped the knife back into her pocket and fished around for her phone.

 

"What did you do to him?"

 

"What did _you_ do to him?" Liz countered, and then added: "Honestly, I have no idea. Can I borrow the torch?"

 

Juliet passed it to her. "Me neither. It just seemed right." Juliet looked more normal now, only a little afraid, and whatever strange trick of the light had made her eyes look grey had vanished with the mist. "Where did you get that? Was that your Swiss Army knife?"

 

"No," Liz said, recovering her phone. "A... friend... of Jon's gave it to me. I forgot I had it."

 

"Oh," Juliet said. She tucked her hand back into Liz's and held on very tightly. "I'm glad you had it this time."

 

"I'll leave it in my sock drawer next time, I think," Liz said. "It's a good blade. But it's a bit funny."

 

"All of this is a bit funny," Juliet said. "Let's just get out of here."

 

They walked quickly back to Liz's aunt and uncle's house, and found dinner waiting for them.

 

"You're late," Lyle said, eyeing them in a way that suggested he knew something had happened.

 

"We got a bit... confused," Liz said.

 

"You?" Uncle Theo said. "You got confused? You know this place better than I do, and I live here."

 

"There are bathroom flannels with a better sense of direction than you," Liz said automatically, and then added, with rather more difficulty - "It was... that valley with the barrows in."

 

"That is a weird place," Uncle Theo said. "And tonight is the solstice."

 

He sounded like he thought he was teasing.

 

"Yeah," Liz said, half-smiling.

 

She touched the horseshoe over the door and double-checked the bolts.

 

"What was it?" Lyle asked, when everyone else had gone away.

 

"Some... thing. Weird, like, you remember, that guy with the... glider... we met last year."

 

Lyle hummed, as if he remembered exactly what Liz meant.

 

"He was a bit scared of Juliet," Liz said slowly. "A little bit. The thing we met tonight, I mean. Like he thought she was... powerful. Or could be. But he was really scared of the knife that guy gave me. _Really_ scared. I don't think he'll be back."

 

"You carry that thing?"

 

"No. I forgot it was in my jacket pocket."

 

"Hm," Lyle said again, and hugged her briefly. "Well, it's done." He was silent for a moment. "Lucky you forgot about it."

 

"I know," Liz said.

 

"Don't worry," Lyle said, more easily. "Nothing's getting in here." He winked at Liz, and she understood him to mean _I'll kill it if it tries._

 

She smiled, and let herself forget about barrows, and ghosts, and standing stones.

 


End file.
